Sad news - Rare river dolphin 'now extinct'

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Tim Hochgrebe added 2007-08-30

Better news - it might not be too late to save this species.

Rare Dolphin Seen in China, Experts Say

By REUTERS Published: August 30, 2007

BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Reuters) — A Chinese man has videotaped a large white animal swimming in the Yangtze River that experts say is a member of a dolphin species unique to China and feared extinct, the official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.

The last confirmed sighting of a member of the species, the long-beaked, nearly blind baiji, was in 2004. After an international team failed to find a single dolphin on a six-week expedition along the Yangtze last year, the species was classified as critically endangered and possibly extinct. But the videotape from central Anhui Province may renew slim hopes for the survival of the creature, also known as the white-flag dolphin.

“I never saw such a big thing in the water before, so I filmed it,” Zeng Yujiang, who spotted the dolphin, told Xinhua. He said it was about 1,000 yards away and “jumped out of water several times.” Wang Kexiong, of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the institute had confirmed that a baiji was on the videotape.

In the late 1970s, scientists believed several hundred baiji were still alive, but by 1997 a survey listed just 13 sightings. Found only in the Yangtze, the baiji is related to freshwater dolphin species found in the Mekong, Indus, Ganges and Amazon Rivers.

China has set up a reserve in a lake in Hubei Province but has found no baiji to put in it.

From

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/world/asia/30china.html?ref=science

Tim Hochgrebe

http://www.underwater.com.au

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Tim Hochgrebe added 2007-09-03

an update on this story from the WWF

Baiji Dolphin Spotted in the Yangtze River

03 Sep 2007

The reported sighting of a Yangtze River dolphin, or Baiji, means there is still a chance for people to take further action and protect the cetaceans in the Yangtze from extinction.

The Chinese media reported that a local businessman in Tongling City in east China's Anhui Province filmed "a big white animal" with his digital camera on August 19. The footage was later confirmed to be the Baiji by Prof. Wang Ding, a leading scientist in Baiji study at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

It is the first Baiji reportedly found in the Yangtze since the scientific expedition last year, during which no single Baiji was spotted.

Based on the river's geographic and hydrological complexity and the official definition of extinction by IUCN, WWF and many scientists agreed that this species was "functionally extinct", but thought it was still too early to declare its extinction.

"The finding of Baiji proved our thoughts and presents a last hope to save the species with strengthened measures," said Dr. Zhu Jiang, Senior Programme Officer at WWF China Wuhan Office. "WWF calls for immediate joint efforts to provide a living space for this beautiful animal, which is a flagship species indicating the health of its habitat - the Yangtze River."

WWF has been actively involved in the protection of cetaceans and their habitat in the Yangtze River. "A multiple strategy from various stakeholders including agriculture, water resources, transportation, environmental protection and sanitation should be used to reduce human disturbance to protect the cetaceans in the river," Zhu said.

Last year, WWF cooperated with other stakeholders to finish drafting a protection strategy and action plan to improve the protection capacity of nature reserves.

"The protection strategies and action plan will be implemented under the WWF-HSBC programme to conserve the Baiji and the Yangtze together with related stakeholders," Zhu added.

More at

http://wwf.org.au/news/baiji-dolphin-spotted-in-the-yangtze-river/

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